Made from the oil of the Chinese water snake, which is rich in the omega-3 acids that help reduce inflammation, snake oil in its original form really was effective, especially when used to treat arthritis and bursitis. ~ A History Of Snake Oil Salesmen, Lakshmi Ghandi
Back before the huckster, before the boom, before
the hustle, before Clark Stanley—entrepreneur cowboy—
claimed a cure from the Hopi, sliced a rattler wide open
for the crowd, plunging guts in boiling water to make
the first fake,
Chinese water snakes warded off the hurts
of migrant rail workers, a soft healing from hard aches of
a long day, a true remedy.
Before the tourists and the colonization, the hotel
beach resorts with coconut shell bras and Mai Tais,
before drunk, horny beach bros and babes on spring break
desecrations,
Pele warned the Kānaka Maoli away
from Kīlauea’s heat, the myth as real as the stones—
spewing and molten—rolling red down the mountainside,
taller than a tale.
Before holy water sales and Crusades, before perfectly
coiffed, cake-faced televangelicals, before well-meaning,
unschooled, pauper missionaries lacking context but driven
by the truth they did know,
the nomads schooled their children,
extolling the unspeakably-named good god who won their battles
sans fight, made the dark and the light, and led them out of slavery,
ash pillar by day, lava spout by night.